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<atom:link href="http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><title><![CDATA[Comments on: A Better Way to Measure Consumer Influence]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments</link>
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<description><![CDATA[Let's stop using fuzzy "Likes" to measure social clout and go with trusted old metrics, such as product awareness and brand engagement.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Vijay Sundaram]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108348</link>
<description><![CDATA[Thanks Nate. I agree that WOM is very effective in creating awareness for companies that do not already have a big market presence. But let&#039;s take the larger established brands for a minute. Yes, influence can be clearly tracked to sales and conversions, but other points along the path-to-purchase like awareness and engagement also matter (and can be measured). In may cases, awareness may not be &quot;brand awareness&quot; in the classic sense, but awareness of something specific - like a new offering, a special promotion, or a cause. 

At SocialTwist we set up a program for a well known financial brand when they launched a new payment solution for the small-business market. Direct customer referrals, as you can imagine, carry a lot of credibility in this market. The awareness was for the new product that was launched for this targeted segment. Of course, we measured engagement and conversion as well. As another example, we&#039;ve done a program that supported cancer research fr a large, global brand - awareness, in this case, was for their social responsibility.]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:41 EST</pubDate>
<author>Vijay Sundaram</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Donnie Lafferty]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108347</link>
<description><![CDATA[This is spot on for sure in terms of putting weight into measures of influence. Often, the mistake is made to generate likes and obtain measurements and stats that mean very little in terms of profitability, impact or actual influence at a level that is &quot;business&quot; beneficial. We chase carrots around the track while one day realizing the race is over and our new finish line is elsewhere. My team at CauseKeepers learned this the hard way years ago. Know what you want to truly capture and avoid the noid of metrics that matter not. Donnie Lafferty, President of CauseKeepers]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:35 EST</pubDate>
<author>Donnie Lafferty</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Vijay Sundaram]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108346</link>
<description><![CDATA[Agree with you Stefan. The 1% driving 30% of outcomes is precisely the type of highly skewed results we observe and measure in SocialTwist programs. These are ardent advocates, and the brands are just beginning to understand and engage them.]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:23 EST</pubDate>
<author>Vijay Sundaram</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Stefan Eyram]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108341</link>
<description><![CDATA[This is right on target. Influencers and advocates are very important to brands and companies. Some research shows the 1% of the audience who are most influential drive 30% of the measurable results including conversions. Identifying true influencers - those with the right combination of reach, engagement and economic impact - and engaging them can actually make or break a promotion or program. This is all earned media (social amplification) from paid media (paid ads, traditional advertising) and owned media (email, direct mail, website).

Identifying and engaging influencers is important and so is measuring this and capturing data, especially economic impact (ROI) analytics to optimize future programs and CRM data that is owned and can be leveraged for future email and direct mail programs, etc.

MavenSocial (www.mavensocial.com) has developed a platform that addresses everything the article mentions, from identifying influencers and providing wrap-around analytics for channel and social ROI, to building owned media (email opt-ins) and capturing CRM data. MavenScore combines reach, engagement and economic impact, a truer reflection on the ability to influence a specific outcome such as a marketing objective or conversion.

Brands and agencies love the results, from driving and measuring earned media (social amplification) for existing campaigns, and providing detailed analytics around channel ROI, to building a social CRM database of influencers and email subscribers.

This is where the industry is going as CFOs expect marketers to provide real - not &quot;trumped up&quot; - measurable value and ROI.]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:23 EST</pubDate>
<author>Stefan Eyram</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Nate Riggs]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108330</link>
<description><![CDATA[Good article, Vijay. I get your line of thinking if you are relating influence directly to sales and retention. If that is the direct marketing objective, then your ideas are spot on. Where I question your thinking and opinions on the validity of social metrics and influence lies in awareness generation. Each of the case examples you cite above are long standing, iconic brands. There awareness has been built over decades of time and with billions of dollars in integrated campaigns. For these brands, focusing only on sales and retention metrics makes perfect sense.

I question whether or not your position realistically applies to small and mid-sized businesses who are eons away from establish the brand awareness and market penetration your case examples have achieved. For smaller brands who are struggling to expand their footprints, audience and customer base, social metrics are in a way a reflection of WOM -- I think we&#039;ll agree that this is one of the most powerful forms of marketing, and essentially what you discuss in your examples of loyalty programs above. Again, good article. I&#039;m interested to find out your reaction to my opinion.]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:26 EST</pubDate>
<author>Nate Riggs</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Mike Fabbri]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108318</link>
<description><![CDATA[Couldn&#039;t agree more. Which is why I founded prollie, a social platform that evaluates users based on QUALITY of output and skill on social media vs. # of followers or retweets. It&#039;s not about about having 10,000 followers or 10, it&#039;s about the passion you put into your social media life and the interests you care about the most.

if anyone is interested, we&#039;re nearing the end of our private alpha test and about to release our public beta. tweet at me (@mjfabbri) or head to prollie.com to request an invite, we&#039;d love to see what you think, as we go beyond influence and we create network-agnostic social search for qualified individuals who want and deserve to be found based on your interests.

Please try it out! prollie: social media above the &#039;influence&#039;. The qualitative alternative to influence-scoring sites]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:37 EST</pubDate>
<author>Mike Fabbri</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Kathleen Gallagher]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108315</link>
<description><![CDATA[I&#039;ve been saying for years that this is why Klout can&#039;t be taken seriously. Sorry just because you have 50K followers and your following 47K does not mean you have influence. And I&#039;ve never used Kred so not sure on how they rank people, but it really can&#039;t be any better. I agree with the referral though honestly I hate doing referrals myself maybe because I hate hawking product to my friends, but for the regular consumer I could see why it would work.]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:09 EST</pubDate>
<author>Kathleen Gallagher</author>
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<title><![CDATA[By: L. Fish]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-measure-consumer-influence/239777/#comments-108312</link>
<description><![CDATA[Excellent. A little real-world sanity amongst all of the fuzzy SM &quot;metrics&quot;.]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:24 EST</pubDate>
<author>L. Fish</author>
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